russian bunny
by u-knightedfederationofplanets
Summary: Chekov and Sulu adopt a bunny and have to hide it from the rest of the crew. Chulu Background McKirk


Occasionally, the Enterprise would make trips from one side of the universe to the other, passing by Earth. Seeing as how nearly all of their crew members were either from Earth or found a second (or third) home there, they stopped for a few days' visit every time they were in the neighborhood (ordered, of course, by Captain Kirk to visit any family or friends they had left behind.)

Since Chekov didn't have a home to return to on account of running away from home at a young age to enlist in Starfleet, and his helms partner didn't want to leave the young ensign alone for their long weekend, Sulu agreed to spend his time with Chekov in Iowa near their Captain's hometown. Most of the crew either took a quick flight back to their respective hometowns or stayed in the local hotels and roamed the local bars. Several members of the command crew rented a hotel room for their three days, because, for various reasons, the people they worked with every day had become their family. Spock, Kirk, and Bones were in the room across the hallway, Uhura was sharing a room with Scotty, and Chekov and Sulu shared a room.

The first day of shore leave, Sulu and Chekov got away from the others and decided to go to a small diner near the Starfleet base. Nothing anything too eventful happened within the first or second days, but, the third day, the pair had until 2:00 pm to reboard the enterprise and until then they could finish enjoying Iowa and tying up loose ends. There was a farmers' market in town and Sulu and Chekov decided to spend their last hours on planet there, together.

They came across everything from little trinkets to bread to plants - Sulu decided to buy several ferns and other flora to add some color to his room, and as Sulu's roommate was trying to get a new roommate, and he had gotten rather close to Chekov over those three days, he looked down at his plants, then at the younger boy.

"Hey, uh, Pavel?" Sulu glanced every few seconds between the ensign and his plants.

"My roommate is getting sick of me and applied for a new roommate, so I have a room all to myself, but I don't like being entirely alone..."

The ensign raised his eyebrows.

"Would you like to room with me?"

Chekov nodded and smiled, impulsively grabbing Sulu's hand. He let go quickly, moving his hand up to his wrist. The younger boy squealed something incoherent, then dragged the helmsman over to a large group of penned in bunnies. They were small and colorful and all hysterically adorable. Chekov stared with wide eyes and then looked to Hikaru.

Sulu surprised Bekov by speaking first.

"Do you want to get one? I mean, to put in our room together? That is, if we actually get a room together." Sulu's voice wasn't quite as strong as it was usually.

"Of course!" Chekov grinned and plopped down next to the pen of rabbits. After a moment, he grabbed Sulu and tugged him down to be closer to the bunnies.

"Zey are all so fluffy," Chekov said, watching as a little golden bunny hopped over and sat by his knees.

"Can we get zis one, Hikaru?" Chekov pointed to the gold rabbit. Sulu grinned, so the younger boy brought the rabbit over to the little old lady that was selling them. He handed her the money, and bought the rabbit a small pen to set up in their room.

The bell rang out and the siren put out, "Crew members of the USS Enterprise please report to board,"

Sometimes Chekov could feel the bunny trying to squirm away from his lap when he was on duty, so he would wait until Captain Kirk wasn't looking and he would pass the rabbit to his helmsmate. It helped that the rabbit was the same color as their shirts, because most of the time it would sit comfortably in their laps. But then, something caused a disturbance, the ship was rocked, and though it was solved quickly, the rabbit bounded from it's seat and sprung down the hallway. It was undetected in the chaos, and very soon afterward, Chekov complained of an upset stomach and requested a break. It was granted, so he immediately darted out and ran down the hallway in search.

He looked down nearly every hallway near the bridge, but to no avail, and eventually he ran into the grumpy doctor. Bones folded his arms, raised his eyebrows, and gave Chekov a look of daggers. "Shouldn't you be in bed or in the sickbay?" Chekov winced and nodded. "Yiss, sir."

Bones ended up dragging him down to the sickbay anyway, and he made him lay down. He checked the ensign over, and then sat down in the bed opposite him. "There's nothin' wrong with you, son."

Chekov nodded a little, understanding that he was busted. "Well, Meester Sulu and I have obtained a rabbeet and eet has gone meesing."

Bones made a face, entirely sick of Chekov's crap, and went over to his desk. He pulled a little golden heap of fur out from under it, and dropped it on his desk. "Is this your rabbit?"

Chekov jumped up and squealed with joy, before calming down at the doctor's harsh gaze, but the glint stayed in his eye.

"Yiss, yiss, zat is zee rabbit," Chekov said, reaching for it. "May I have zee rabbit," Chekov's face slowly fell. Bones was holding the poor thing by it's ears, but he saw the disappointment in the young boy's eyes, scowled, and held it properly. "Keep it in your room or I'll launch it into subspace."

Deep in his mind, he knew Bones wouldn't ever launch an innocent little animal into space. He wouldn't do that to anyone, not even his worst enemy. But he knew that there would be some sort of consequence if he didn't keep the rabbit in their room from now on, and it was likely that the old ugly stupid grumpy doctor would tell Captain Kirk and have him deliver it to Earth, or worse - he could tell Mr. Spock. Chekov shuddered and ran to his room, and dropped the rabbit off in it's pen. He reported back to the bridge promptly.

"Did you find the rabbit?" Sulu was whispering, for fear of letting the Captain or anyone else on the bridge know that they had smuggled an animal onto the ship.

"Doctor Mccoy had eet."

"What did he do?"

"Nossing. Zee rabbit ees safe in our room."

"Good."

Not long after Chekov had returned to the bridge, Doctor Mccoy made a visit. He glanced down at the two helmsmen and took several long strides over to the Captain.

"Jim, can I talk to you?"

Kirk looked up with a broad smile on his face. There was almost always that smile, unless something vitally tragic was occurring. He stood, walked off to the side, near where Spock was sitting, and Bones got the Goddamnit-Jim-what-did-you-do look across his face.

"Can you tell me how and why you let our helmsmen smuggle a little pest onboard our ship?"

Jim laughed, one of those big, good-humored laughs. "I don't know, but they've been trying to make me not see it and passing it across to one-another right in front of me."

Bones rolled his eyes while Jim grinned down at the two men. He turned back to Bones, watching his eyes turn from anger to only slightly less annoyed.

"Lighten up, Bones. It's just a rabbit."


End file.
